Finished rereading Vineland today. First read it when it came out in 1990 and I don’t recall reading it again until recently, 35 years later. I’ve recently reread Inherent Vice, and of course, Shadow Ticket, his most recent and often, when idle, between books, I’ll pull one of his books down, open it randomly and … [Read more…]
Crack-up Capitalism – Market Radicals and the Dream of A World Without Democracy by Quinn Slobodian 2023 The New York Review of Books ran a recent review of Slobodian’s new book Hayek’s Bastards – Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right which was intriguing. When I checked at the library for it, … [Read more…]
John Burton, influential California Democrat, dies at 92. The quip “Never pass by a urinal, never trust a fart, and never ignore an erection” is attributed to him. His office wall held a framed jock strap embroidered with the words “I am a Burton supporter.” In 1998, after he was elected Senate president pro tempore, … [Read more…]
Ed Park is a very entertaining writer, very well executed, I keep being reminded of a combination of Lilla and Pynchon, light and dark, light and heavy. If you are in the mood for something dense, well written, this novel is great, full of wit as well. The author is Korean-American and tells the story … [Read more…]
Considered Teffi’s single greatest work, Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea is a deeply personal account of the author’s last months in Russia and Ukraine, suffused with her acute awareness of the political currents churning around her, many of which have now resurfaced. In 1918, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Teffi, … [Read more…]
Herbert J. Gans an eminent sociologist who studied the communities and cultural bastions of America up close and shattered popular myths about urban and suburban life, poverty, ethnic groups and the news media, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 97. For “The Urban Villagers” (1962), Dr. Gans immersed himself in Boston’s … [Read more…]
In the 18-APR-2025 Guardian: How to beat the far right – Mexico
James C. Scott and the Art of Resistance The late political scientist enjoined readers to look for opposition to authoritarian states not in revolutionary vanguards but in acts of quiet disobedience. By Nikil Saval New Yorker April 7, 2025 Some books: The Moral traditional societies of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (1976) … [Read more…]
Pluralistic: Machina economicus (14 Apr 2025) Arguably, we do live in the shadow of such modern demons: we call them “limited liability corporations.” These are (potentially) immortal colony organisms that treat us fleshy humans as mere inconvenient gut flora. These artificial persons are not merely recognized as people under the law – they are given … [Read more…]
‘Parkinson’s is a man-made disease’ – Europe’s flawed oversight of pesticides may be fueling a silent epidemic, warns Dutch neurologist Bas Bloem. His fight for reform pits him against industry, regulators — and time. politico.eu